£98 million Healthy Ageing Programme launches

The £98 million Healthy Ageing Programme has opened its first tranche of competitions, hoping to stimulate new ideas to help us live healthier, happier and more independent lives as we age.

Funded by the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) and led by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the competition provides great opportunities for business to create products and exploit new markets, which will bolster our economy and generate jobs.

One third of children born this year are expected to live to 100. By 2040, around one in seven people in the UK are projected to be over the age of 75 (rising from one in 12 today). The UK’s world leading academic, innovation and technology sectors are in prime position to support and enhance our longer lives, designing new products to keep us active, productive, independent and socially connected across generations for as long as possible.

The Investment Accelerator scheme will stimulate private investment in business-led research and development, to grow and bring to market ideas for healthy ageing products and services that have potential to be adopted on a wide scale.  A total of £29 million in government grants together with matched funding from private investors will be available over the next four years for projects up to £1.5million.

All funded projects will need to show how they tackle one or more of the following essential challenges of older life: sustaining physical activity; maintaining health at work; design for age-friendly homes; creating healthy, active places; supporting social connections; living well with cognitive impairment; and managing common complaints of ageing.

The programme’s largest element (£40m) will be the ‘Trailblazer’ projects, which will stimulate new ideas from a wide range of businesses and social enterprises to develop and deliver products, services and business models at a large scale to support people as they age. These funding grants will open in the Autumn.

George MacGinnis, Healthy Ageing Challenge Director, said: “From our phones, to our cars, to the tech in our homes, innovation and technology has transformed our daily lives over the past 20 years. But what will our lives look like in another 20 years’ time? And how will new opportunities, products and services enhance our quality of life as we age? That’s the key focus of the ISCF Healthy Ageing Programme.  

“The programme follows extensive consultation with the healthy ageing community, including care providers, businesses, investors and third sector bodies. We want to stimulate fantastic partnerships and compelling ideas to open up new global markets and transform the experience of later life.”